IS Virus
by tonbonkittybon
Summary: The Infinite Stratos, a weapon that could only be used by females. Ten years after its introduction, the world maintained a certain peace until Ichika Orimura, a male, shattered that peace with his innate ability to operate an IS. Five years later, another male pilot would emerge, this time sending the world into utter chaos. His name, Sokoto Fukuyama. His mission: WHO CARES!
1. Chapter 1: Curiosity Towards the Unknown

_Episode 1: Renegade Runaway (__Another male IS pilot has emerged! But not how you'd expect...)_

_Part 1: Curiosity towards the Unknown_

"Somebody tranquilize that idiot!" A man shouted.

"Can't catch me!" A young male declared to the world as he was running.

"Goddammit, this has to stop!" Another man shouted.

Far away from the quite hustle and bustle of the suburbs, one quirky prepubescent teenager is wreaking havoc on the mall. A young boy with blonde hair shaped in the weirdest spine-cut yet, blue eyes, and tattered clothing is running through the hallways with a sack of food in one hand, a bag of bottles of water in the other, and two mall cops on his tail. It is quite the spectacle, seeing a scrawny kid outrun two supposedly pronounced figures of authority.

"What's the matter?! Getting too old?!" The boy joked along his way.

"Calling all security! Get this annoying little punk off the mall grounds!" The man called into his walkie talkie. But-

"Hey! Where'd he go?!" He got distracted while he was calling for backup, and that gave the boy time to slip.

"Heheheheh...the classic 'Call for Help, Literally'." He said to himself while he nonchalantly walked towards the entrance. Ignore the unnecessarily large amount of females there; that's normal.

"Hey, Sokoto!" The old man at the entrance waved at the boy.

"Yo, old timer! Long time no chat!" The two have a friendly exchange.

"If you think two days is long, you're not gonna last two weeks."

"Dude. You're talking to the boy who lasted 13 years by his onesy. Out in the wild! With no one to rely one!"

"Oh, please don't start with your tale again! You're gonna bore me to death!"

"You?! Come on! You tell all kinds of stories to your grandkids!"

"But I tell fantastical stories, whereas I don't know what you're saying half the time!"

"Oh, ching chong ding dong to you to then!" They share a good laugh when three ladies, each dressed in an elegant black, red, and blue, show up and-

"Now, is that any way to behave, you doddering old fool." -do that.

"Oh! I'm so sorry," the old man pleaded with the women to forgive him, "Here. Would you like a map?"

"A map?" She laughed in mockery, "Who would use such an out-dated piece or rubble?"

"I-I just didn't-"

"Now, now." One of her friends interrupted, "We shouldn't treat our honored guest so rudely. Here, let me relieve you of some of that pressure." She approached the old man as to take he map. Well, she did. And stuck some ice cream up his face.

"Ahahahaha! Look here! Pinocchio's gotten a little old, hasn't he?!"

"Well, he certainly lost his complexion." And the three erupted into laughter, with some of the female spectators following suit. At that point, Sokoto got really fired up.

"Dude, are you just gonna sit there and take that?" He asked the man.

"Boy, I wish I had your bravado, but the time has passed," he solemnly answered.

"Come on! Where's your pride? Your jubilant-"

"Oh, stop your whining, little man," the woman in black snapped, "You'll never come anywhere close to our grace with such filthy, vulgar jests." Then, her friends chimed in.

"Just look at him! It's not even Halloween, and yet he's in raggedy clothing! What is he, a zombie from kingdom gone?"

"The very nerve of this decrepit little vermin!" And more insults came his way until...

"Oh, please. Like anyone would break their neck over all the junk you're wearing." He started off with a measly remark.

"Bah, the very ignorance of your muscles-for-brains repels me. Come, let us cleanse ourselves of this filth." And with that, they strutted in their high heels and walked away. Bad idea. VERY bad idea.

Sokoto swiped a pen and flung it at the woman in blue's left heel, right at she was about to take another step with that foot. The pen broke the hilt right when she stepped. She shrieked in agony as she fell over, colliding with the other two women, selling all their merchandise on the floor, and landing on top of them. They looked like a mess, what with their dresses looks like rugs covering their heaps of flesh, their hats misplaced on their heads in a goofy fashion, and their jewels entangles in one another. And to top it all off, they were all wearing wretched faces.

"Wow," Sokoto joked, "y'all went from riches to rags in three seconds!" This time, everybody chuckled for a few seconds. The women, however, completely lost their cool.

"Know this, you filthy little rat!" One of the man proclaimed, "You will rue the day you ever crossed paths with us! We'll make you pay for this moment! We won't stop until your rotten little flesh ends up in-" Sokoto stuffed her mouth with cotton candy.

"A fiery, painful death, yada yada yada," he said, "but until then..." He swiped a hat and the red dress from them, effectively releasing the most hideous shriek in history. But that didn't matter to Sokoto. He only came to make people laugh, one way or another.

"Ooh, look at me!" He made a parody of the three women, "I'm a skinny, self-conscious girl looking for a man who has it all! I want money, fame, power, a human footstool, and love! But not too lovely! I wanna step on him, step on hi-I'm gonna fall!" He tripped on the dress on purpose, showing the rise to and fall from fame that is ever so prevalent in society. The audience was laughing. The women were infuriated. The mall cops suddenly showed up, frantically demanding that Sokoto surrender. The entire mall was suddenly caught up in an uproar.

Exactly as planned.

"Thanks, Soki," the man gratefully said.

"Anytime, old chap," he replied, "but, uh..."

"Oh, right!" The man suddenly remembered where he was, "Here's your map!"

"Thanks!"

"Come back in a couple years, yeah?"

"Will do! See you soon!"

"Pip pip!"

"Doodley-dooooooooooooo~~~" And just like that, Sokoto was gone. Not even the cops could catch him. The women could only think thoughts of revenge. What luck that will do them. Any and all videos of what just happened have already been uploaded to the Internet.

"Ah...I'll miss that little whippersnapper," the man silently said to himself before turning to face the approaching cop force, "Well, no time like the present."

A few hours later, in an upper-class residential area...

"Criminy Jickets...how am I supposed to read this?..." Sokoto was twisting the map left and right, flipping it upside down and back, trying to make sense of the map he'd been given, "I might as well be looking at my own nervous system..."

Agile and witty as he may be, the sharpest knife in the kitchen he ain't. He's never been one to rely on directions, so every decision he makes is intuition-based. Combined with his clumsy handling of all forms of advanced technology, he might as well be a walking motion-sensor bomb. He's already unpredictable like one.

"Let's see..." He looked up from the map, "Aw, come on! I looped around the same block?! Aaaaagh, forget it! I'm going intuition mode aha-hello?" Just when he was about to throw down the map, he noticed a small red dot in the map that he saw the old man make during the improv at the mall. "Now, what could you want over there?" He surveyed the spot for a few seconds. "TWO MILES?! THIS SPOT IS TWO MILES AWAY?!" He stared in the direction of the location blankly. "Uuuuuuugh...Fine. I'll go to the extraction point, Mister Dots-a-Lot!"

He stomped his way towards the destination without stopping to rest for a moment's notice. He stomped for so long that he didn't even notice the moon shine behind him. By the time he got to the spot marked on the map, he was drenched in sweat. His feet felt like he was wearing shoes laced with pin needles. He was completely drained of energy. He was a walking zombie who has enough brains to speak coherent language.

"Oy vey..." he said wearily, "What I'd give to take some random kid's bike, huh...And look at this place! No one set foot inside that compound for ages!" The 'extraction point' itself...was an abandoned facility. Grass and moss covered most of the outer wall, the entire building was wearing rust, and the entry door was broken off. There was even a sign outside that read, "NO ENTRY BEYOND THIS POINT. ONLY AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ALLOWED." "What authorized personnel?!" Sokoto screamed in confusion, "What entry?! There's no shiny, happy people here! It's a ghost town, for sake's craps!"

Ghost indeed. The instant he said his two cents, a strange wind bellowed from within the compound. It emitted something like a call for help. When it brushed at Sokoto's hair, he jolted in chilling fear.

"HOLY-WHOA!" he screamed, "What's this guy's problem?!" When he recovered from the daze, he felt a strange presence inside the compound. Spooky as it may be, it was very enticing to violate the private property, to the point of non-resistance.

"Ok," he said with irritated resolve, "I'm not tired anymore. Let's conquer this dungeon." And with that, he entered the dark, hollow, haunted metal trap to challenge the dungeon master.


	2. Chapter 2: I'm old fashioned! Ha, ha!

_Part 2: I'm "old fashioned"! I got it! Ha, ha, ha!_

Sokoto couldn't help but feel on edge. Through the endless narrow metal corridors and hallways, within the dense shroud of darkness that encumbered everything inside, lies the mysterious ghost that beckoned him to intrude upon its slumber. He has never been so tensed up all his life. Maybe it's because he knows that these kinds of dungeons are usually littered with booby traps and death ends. The only sounds that dominate the halls are his freakishly heavy breathing and the occasional whisper of the wind which would-

"WOADADAYADA!" -spook the daylights out of Sokoto... "Uuuu..."

What's even spookier is that the walls of the compound aren't rusted at all. Someone maintained these halls throughout the compound's lifespan. Combined with the emptiness of the building-

"WOOHAAWOOHAA!" Stop doing that! "Haaaaaah! I don't wanna stay here anymore!"

Tough luck. He's completely lost. His sense of direction's all screwed up thanks to his growing fears inside the dark. He kept walking, running his hand frantically across the nearest walls. Now, the sounds of the air are populated by his incessant whimper-

"I'M BATMAAAAAAAAN!" IF HE DOESN'T SHUT UP SOON, I'LL DECK THAT KID MYSELF! "Whoa! What did I hit?!"

His hand suddenly struck something on the wall. He went back to run his hands across the strange object. It felt like a small button. But his hands were so jittery that he ended up mashing it, triggering the loudest buzzer in the world.

"HOLY MONKEY!" Sokoto ran away and hid behind a wall, like an elephant from a mouse, only even louder than the door opening sequence. The door slowly creaked open by itself, releasing dust from its creases, and unveiling what lies in the hidden chamber. Sokoto slowly peeked from behind the wall, utterly terrified of what might erupt from the door. Instead, he saw a gigantic robot on top of a pedestal, with a bunch of wires and cables attached to it from the ceiling. He slowly crept away from the wall toward the huge robot, staring at its grandeur. Upon close inspection, this doesn't look like a robot at all. In fact, this isn't a robot at all. It looks like a robotic suit. Someone could put this thing on like a pair of gauntlets and pants. All feelings of fear and worry have been completely replaced by majesty and excitement.

"Look at this monster..." Sokoto whispered in awe. He slid his fingers across its legs. His hyperactive mind conjured fantasies about wielding this robot suit. Flying high above the clouds absorbing the radiant warmth of the sun, striking your blade against the foes of old, standing atop a cliff with your companion side by side...Just the mere thought of it all is enough to send shivers of pleasure down his spine. He explored every part of this suit, allowing his imagination to run wild. He was like a little kid who just stepped inside Santa's workshop. Then, he noticed the panels on the pedestal. It read,

"INFINITE STRATOS GENERATION 6  
>PROTOTYPE: DIGNIFIED SUNRISE<br>PRODUCTION LINE FRONT END"

"Hang on, production line?!" Sokoto was bewildered at those words, "There's more?!" He looked up to the side of the suit. Yes, there was more. A whole warehouse full, it seems like. This place was Santa's workshop. Christmas time was indeed right around the corner. And the old man gave him a V.I.P. pass to experience the madness before anyone else!

Sokoto could no longer contain his curiosity. He immediately b-lined towards the nearest 'infinite stratos'. After that, he practically invaded ever single IS's personal space. Digging his hands into their sleeves, wagging his entire body around as if he got stuck, pretending to fight a mecha giant, the works! He fooled around like a wide-eyed cat. He was determined to explore the entire warehouse-dungeon-whatever this place is, who cares, PARADISE! He went crazy for a full hour!

After finishing his exploration of this chamber, he plopped himself on the floor and stretched his body out. "Mmmm, mm! Boy, was today some kind of day or what!" He has never been this overjoyed or tired since the day he traversed the entire of Japan. "Whew! Boy, howdy! Now all I need is a spa, and I'm all set- Hello?" He noticed something in the shadow of the corner of the room. It was one of those ISs too, right? But it's smaller than everything else in the room. Very dusty, too. He went over there and checked it out.

Boy, dusty is not the right word for it. This thing hasn't moved in over a decade! More than a decade; look at what's around its torso!

"INFINITE STRATOS GENERATION 1  
>SILVER STREAMLINE<br>DUE FOR DISMANTLING"

"Whaaaaaat! Who would wanna take you apart!" Sokoto said to the little guy, "You must've have a really rough journey, right?" He brushed off some of the dust bunnies. He paused to stare at the tiny IS for a few seconds, wondering what this machine went through to receive its sentence. Then, he turned to address the crowd of ISs, "Hey! Anyone wanna take this little fella home? Only 30,000 yen!" What. Cheap. Placement.

"Huh," Sokoto turned to lean against the dusted IS, "Well, looks like we got all the time in the world, right?"

Actually, the instant he touched that thing, his time ran out. As soon as he finished asking his question, the IS responded to him. It started glowing and making this mysterious noises. He backed away in shock. The IS continued to activate, regardless. It shrugged off its dust and snapped the sign in half.

"Uh...no, I don't?..."


	3. Chapter 3: The Mini-Boss Rush

_Part 3: The Mini-Boss Rush_

INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT. SECURITY BREACH AT THE MAIN LABORATORY.

"Whoa! What the heck is going on!" Sokoto triggered a motion-sensor alarm. Any minute now, someone will come rushing in this chamber, eyes peeled for the idiot that trespassed into this space, gunning down anything that moves. All because of a certain scientific mechanical suit that activated to Sokoto's touch. He scanned the chamber for any possible escape routes. There was one: the way he came in. Everything else was a thick, metal wall.

"No, no, no, no!" Sokoto pleaded for the IS to turn off, repeatedly banging on its arms, "Turn off! Turn off! Standby mode! We don't need any holes in somebody! How do I shut this thing off?!" ISs don't have an 'off switch'. Idiot. It's not like it mattered, though, because a couple of officials broke the door down, security kill codes on standby.

"Hey, you!" A female voice boomed, "Step away from the defective model!"

"Defective?..." What part of this little trinket was defective? While Sokoto was trapped in thought, another female officer bomb-rushed towards him. He narrowly ducked under her...metal fury swipe?! Wait, these guys-uh, girls have ISs, too?! What has the world come too?! Let's let the woman who nearly killed Sokoto hint at what the world already was to begin with:

"Huh? A boy?!" she thought, slamming into the wall.

"That's impossible," the other officer thought, "There's no way a damn male can opera-"

"OK, I'M OUTTA HERE!" Sokoto hopped onto the newly activated IS, placing his arms and legs into the proper sleeves in one fell swoop. The IS immediately lit his view with the basic controls on how to operate it. "Wha-Get this clutter offa my face! I need to-eh.." Before he could finish his train of thought, he got rammed by the officer who tried to kill him. It felt weird because that really was supposed to kill him, but she was protected by some invisible shield. The impact of the hit sent him flying towards the second officer, who readied her twin shotgun. But right after she fired at Sokoto, he put his new best friend to use. He broke the restraints placed on its arms and legs and backflipped over the bullets and slammed his feet into her shotguns. She backed up to try and avoid the kick, but her IS's wings got stuck against the wall behind her. She ended up taking a huge hit, paralyzing her arms. Sokoto himself suffered from the recoil, bouncing himself back in the chamber.

"I have you now!" The officer who's still standing charged at him with her sword. She swung it at him, but he caught her strike. He was slammed into the floor, pinned down by her sword and her heavy weight.

"Sca...scary face..." Sokoto was struggling to hold the sword back, when a sudden massive pressure started thrusting the sword's tip towards his face. He diverted the hit to the floor, burying the sword deep. She swung it from the ground and kicked the rubble to his body, but he managed to evade it just in time. He kicked his feet to the space behind him to get some recovery. Instead, it triggered an Ignition Boost, which flung him back to the entryway-

"WAITWAITWAITWAI-" and slamming into the gunner he knocked down earlier, this time smashing the wall into pieces. "My bad, but I gotta bail!" Bail how, exactly?

"Dammit," the gunner said as she got up, fully capable of moving again, "After him!" She and the swordswoman flung after Sokoto. "Take the west path! We'll cut him off!"

"Calling for reinforcements!" the swordswoman called for backup while in pursuit, "Renegade IS pilot in Okinawa prefecture facility! Requesting additional reinforcements to subdue renegade male pilot! Repeat, in pursuit of renegade male pilot!"

"All that blabber mouthing and I couldn't lose one lick of you?!" Sokoto screamed while flying away from her.

"Shut up, you little brat!" The officer repeatedly swung her sword at Sokoto, hoping to nick him hard enough to lose his balance. It only made him more frantic and crazy with his sporadic directional shifts. No matter where he swung his body, he couldn't lose her despite the numerous hallways and narrow corridors.

After a tense minute-long chase, he finally saw a light. "There it is!" He flung his body towards the light. He could see the escape route. Just a little closer!

"Hold it!" The gunner blocked the road and opened fire on Sokoto. He took a direct hit and slowed down to try and block the fire. For a split second, he accidentally kicked his feet to the ground, triggering another Ignition Boost, which sent him towards the ceiling.

"Got you, you little-" The swordswoman barely stabbed Sokoto's backside before he rocketed out of reach. The stab's impact flipped him over, and he ended up making a bigger hole in the compound box than intended.

"Oh, my..." The hit dazed him for a split second. He shrugged it off and refocused his attention on getting as far away as humanly possible. "I GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!" He took off into the night sky, with the two officers tailing him very closely. The gunner continued firing on Sokoto, while he continued to twist and turn and barrel roll to avoid taking any major damage. "This is crazy! Don't I have any weapons?!" A bunch of screens lit up in front of him. They showed an Energy Meter, Shield Meter, some gloves, gauntlets and leg guards...but no sword or gun to be found. Anywhere. This IS doesn't have any weapons.

"What?! That's all you got?!" Sokoto screamed in disbelief as the IS prepped him with the available gear, "How am I supposed to fend off two crazy demonic screaming banshees like this?!"

"What did you just say?!" The gunner screamed, severely irritated, "KILL THAT LITTLE RODENT!" The two women activated their Ignition Boosts and charged forward like the banshees Sokoto described them as. The swordswoman hacked and slashed away at him, while the gunner revealed her hidden wing guns and unloaded a barrage of heat-seeking missiles. Surprisingly, he was able to block every single strike and evade almost every single missile, with a few exceptions, which only served to get him out of sticky situations or as a means to divert his opponents' attention momentarily to expose a small weak spot. Being a natural-born fighter, he had the 'six sense' to sense where an opponent was going to attack from, and how to attack and counter attack. Something that these two jokers obviously didn't have.

He had a smirk of sorts just seeing their faces twist with rage with each failed attempt to take him down. There's always a weird charm staying one step ahead of their game.

"Why won't you just die?!" The gunner said as she unleashed her 1000 fireworks from her IS.

"Alright, it's time to end this!" Sokoto said as he prepped to take the brunt of the barrage. Directly above him is the swordswoman, who was ready to deal the final blow. Just in case Sokoto managed to evade the missiles, she would catch him off guard, drawing him back under fire with her sword. However, he pulled off the most unbelievable feat. And by unbelievable, they seriously didn't think he'd pull it off.

Right when the missiles were about to touch him, he vanished in thin air. He just flat out disappeared, leaving the swordswoman wide open.

"That's...impossible..." she silently whispered to herself as she suffered a knock-out from the missile barrage.

"What?!" The gunner reacted to the hit, "How did he get out of-"

"Looking for me?" Sokoto crept behind her. Before she could react to his presence, he socked her in the face and then proceeded to lay the overkill smackdown on her, ending with him flip kicking her to the ground and pounding one last earthquaking punch on her gut.

When the dust cleared, her IS was shattered into pieces. She lay on the ground, unconscious, her stomach still squashed by Sokoto's fist.

"You'll do better to not underestimate me next time," Sokoto said with a smug grin, withdrawing his fist and regaining his composure. Once he steadied himself, he took off to this skies once again.

"Just because we had mad skills don't mean that excuses your tiny inventory," Sokoto said to his new companion, "Come on! Let 's get outta here and find an armory or something!"

The two officers have failed in apprehending the so-called 'renegade'. One of them was still laying on the ground, right in the middle of a man-made crater, with major injuries to her abdominals. The other staggered towards the crater, clutching her bleeding right arm tightly, IS in recovery mode, staring at her comrade in disbelief. How could someone who hasn't even had five lousy minutes with a delicate piece of advanced machinery utilize it to its fullest advantage? A male, for that matter! And with an obsolete piece of junk in terms of IS models! What was happening to them? What happened to him?! She gnawed her teeth in anger, in pure indignation.

"The renegade escaped," she spoke to thin air, "No casualties, one in critical condition. He is now most wanted. All units! Hunt him down and return him to Okinawa, dead or alive!"

Far away from the tension of the mainland, in the serenity of the moonlit ocean, someone responded to the call of the hunt,

"Blue Tears to Twin Swallow. Target sighted exiting Okinawa coastline. Engaging target. Rally to my location."

It was another IS user. This time, of British descent. She looked on the coast with reservation in her crystal blue eyes.

"Another male pilot..." she gently whispered to herself as she took aim, "What's going to happen to the music?..."

She fired her sniper rifle.

Direct hit.


	4. Chapter 4: Get it off! (x16456)

_Part 4: GET IT OFF! (x16456)_

"AGH!" Sokoto yelped in agony, "Grr...Where did that come from?!" The IS suddenly flashed all kinds of screens of the seaside. "Hey, what-What's the big idea?!" To point out the one screen that showed someone with a sniper rifle. "What the-who's that?" An indicator popped up beside the mysterious person: 5000M, SW. "Guu...that far..." The screen showed the woman now aiming her rifle and firing another shot. "What's she-YIPE!" He sensed the incoming bullet and barely managed to duck under it. "What kind of crazy demon have we encountered?!" Sokoto rambled on as he kept dodging bullets and rockets from this 'demon', "Seriously, do we have anything to defend ourselves?!" Again, many transparent screens popped up in front of his face, none of them showing a shield or gauntlet or anything used for defense. "YOU DON'T HAVE ANY LASERS! YOU'RE NOT A SUPER SAIYAN! GET SOME CLUBS OR SOMETHING!"

There was a momentary ceasefire midway through that sentence. He used this opportunity to regain his composure and track the direction of the missiles, "That way...Hahh...We gotta take her on directly, don't we?...Ok, let's see whose head she wants." He turned to face his boss battle location, kicked his feet backward to trigger and Ignition Boost, and slammed his body towards the boss.

"Based on that one picture," he said to his IS, "she's a long-range fighter. Those abnormally fat thighs might carry a surprise cannon or two. It doesn't look like she can hold her own in a fist fight, though. Then, all I have to do is avoid every shot, close the distance, steal her rifle, and trim some weight off her thighs. Simple." What?! No, that doesn't sound simple at all! That sounds like a royal pain in the phliauag! And it is.

A few seconds later, he could see someone in the shadow of the moon. "That's her!" He curled his fists preparing to rush her blind spot. He hurled towards her silhouette-

"BLARPGH~" -but he slammed his face into what looked like a flying metal disc, losing control of himself and slamming into the ocean. A moment later, he surfaced and lay floating like a dead zombie.

"Target subdued," the sniper woman said, "Proceeding to arrest and transport." She slowly descended to where Sokoto lay, looking on with concern. He seemed so harmless, so docile. His clothing was in complete shambles; how long was he homeless for? How could he cause anyone so much trouble? She leaned down to pick him up, but when her body was inches away from his-

"SIKE!" He kicked her body hard, triggering the Ignition Boost to send her flying momentarily. He used the recoil to stand himself on the water. He kicked the water again to charge straight at her.

The surprise attack shocked her systems as she struggled to regain her balance. As soon as she saw him coming for her, she aimed her rifle and shot him at point-blank range. The impact of the shot stopped him in his tracks, as he tried to clear the invisible dust from the shot. When he finally cleared his surroundings, he looked up to find her high above him, like a queen to her slave.

"You've got some nerve strutting your mucky filth across my ocean, little boy," she said haughtily, "What could someone like you possibly hope to accomplish in this day and age?"

"Oh, I ain't aiming to accomplish anything, that's for damn sure!" Sokoto answered back, "I do what I came here to do: my thing, and my thing only!"

"Is your thing dragging the whole world down under breath? Because I am not amused one bit."

"Then, allow me to entertain you tonight." Sokoto kicked his feet to the water again, charging towards the woman at a high velocity. But before he could reach her, he saw four discs detach from her wings to her sides, firing high-energy lasers nonstop. "Yow!" He diverted away from her to avoid getting caught in the blasts. But that didn't stop the discs, though. They pursued him, firing whenever they get the chance. "Are you kidding me?!" He had trouble dodging them. Whenever he escaped one disc, another was waiting right there to blast his face off.

"Yes, that's it! Dance to the music!" the woman said with contempt joy, "Dance to the waltz of Cecilia Alcott and the Blue Tears!"

"This is nuts! I can't get anywhere near her!" He screamed in frustration, but then he noticed that she wasn't moving at all. What if she was concentrating on something so hard that...

"Fine," he said, "Take out the drones first!" He readied his arms to absolute defensive mode, evading any lasers he can and only taking specific hits to draw in the drones into a false sense of assurance. He lured one to his weak spot: the back of his neck. "Blammo." Once he knew it was directly behind him, he kicked his feet in front, angling his legs so that the impact of the Ignition Boost would be off-center. This basically urned him into a human throwing knife. He was hurled at the drone. It didn't have and time to react to him. He struck his feet on it, destroying it.

"What the-" Cecilia said in shock.

As soon as Sokoto destroyed that drone, he kicked his feet behind him, stabilizing his position and rocketing towards the drone in front of him. It tried to avoid him, but he stretched his leg long enough to kick it into pieces.

"You can't move because all your concentration is on your precious servants, right?!" He surmised correctly.

"Ugh..." Cecilia withdrew her two remaining drones and retuned to full-auto sniper firing.

"A quick eye with horrible agility..." Sokoto said to himself as her continued his specific-brunt strategy. There was one moment when he would get close enough to tug her hair, only to see her barely evade his attack, and switch from sniper rifle to homing drone. "Ok, we're on our own rhythm now. This is as good as done," he said while timing his placement and position with the drones' rapid fire. Through his quick observation and reflexes, he was able to destroy the last two drones, leaving Cecilia defenseless.

"En garde, meat head!" Sokoto said as he charged towards Cecilia, secretly opening his left hand to counter-

"Looks like you fell for it." She smugly said.

"What it?" he asked.

"So sorry, but there are more than four," she revealed two cannons behind her legs and blasted two rockets at him. She expected to send him flying backwards, but that wasn't exactly the case.

"NOW!" He screamed as he flew headfirst into the rockets' path. He swung his left arm over his side as hard as he could to twist his body to slip past the small opening between the rockets.

"HUH?!" She shouted right before she got socked in the face.

"How's that?!" He asked her before a red dot appeared in front of him. "Who would-" Those rockets he dodged earlier had come back to finish the job. Since he focused all his energy on the attack, he can't move in time to evade the incoming rockets, and she was still suffering recoil from his punch.

They both got hit, Sokoto from the rockets and Cecilia from the resulting explosion. They were knocked back quite aways, encumbered in smoke.

"AAAAAAAGH!" Cecilia couldn't hold her ground at all. She was still plummeting downwards towards the water. "Come on! Hang in there!" She flipped her body to nosedive and plunge beneath the ocean, then rise above the surface to do a midair backflip to fully recompose herself. Still, she couldn't believe what just happened. No one should've been able to avoid the secret cannons so foolhardily. How did he do that?! This wasn't just another robber or petty criminal. She was up against someone with a true six sense attuned to fighting. She knew why he was so dangerous now. But it should be fine now, because those rockets came back for him and neutralized his shielding. Surely there was no way he would've survived? But then she realized...there was a puff of smoke in front of her.

"No...no, no, no, no, no." She whispered exasperatedly, "No, he couldn't have...It's not...He can't-

"I CAN'T HEAR!" Sokoto blurted out as he cleared the smoke away from his eyes, "Ugh...What is in these rockets, lady?! Upgrade your gunpowder for on-uh..."

He stopped mid-sentence. He stared in awe at her. He saw it. She saw it. Their ISs changed appearance. Radically.

"But...why..." Cecilia was still flabbergasted, but then a haunting revelation chilled her to the bone, "HAVE YOU BEEN FIGHTING ON A DEFAULT SETTING THIS WHOLE TIME?!"

"Me?!" Sokoto responded, "What about you?! Those rockets shave off a few fat pounds from your thighs!"

"Don't be silly!" She was going to finish her thoughts, "ISs don't have...any...body...fat..." but then, she looked at her legs. They were longer, slimmer, and took on an aqua blue color scheme. Her entire suit changed form as well. Instead of a black chest guard, it turned sky blue. Her wings were reshape to look somewhat like angel fish. She looked like a pure mermaid. "How is this possible?..." She got her answer via transparent screen that said,

BLUE TEARS UPGRADED  
>2ND SHIFT: MERMAID'S TEARS<br>INCREASED DEFENSE, AGILITY, AND ACCURACY  
>HIDDEN MISSILE PODS REMOVED<br>TWO OPTICAL DRONES WICH CAN BE USED DURING MOTION  
>BLUE PIERCE INCREASE POWER AND FIRING RATE<p>

"It wasn't supposed to...This is...amazing...I didn't even..." While Cecilia marveled at her newfound and supposedly impossible legendary acquisition, Sokoto, who also received a massive upgrade to his IS, was checking out his new threads.

He was given a pair of wings that looked like they were made by the King of Heaven. His IS was slightly taller, though it still paled in height compared to every single IS ever made. He was given futuristic transparent goggles that acted as a replacement for sudden pop-ups and notifications in his face. His entire IS, however, was sleeker, more pearlescent;the color scheme, the chest and leg guards, every single piece of the IS...it was all modeled after Kagamine Len.

"Man, I am loving this," Sokoto said before a bunch of words popped up on his left side:

FORMATTING AND CONFIGURATION COMPLETE  
>1ST SHIFT: SILVER STREAMLINE<br>HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT PROFICIENCY  
>SOLAR AND LUNAR ENERGY RECHARGE<br>IGNITION BOOST: SHORTER COOLDOWN AND LITTLE ENERGY COST  
>GRAPPLING HOOK HIDDEN ON LEFT ARM<p>

"No way..." Sokoto finally understood. This thing doesn't have any weapons because it doesn't NEED any weapons. He then looked up at Cecilia, "Looks like she got a massive upgrade, too."

Cecilia looked Sokoto straight in the eye. She saw something that brought momentary deja vu. Then, she realized.

In the heat of battle, all limitations and expectations are immediately thrown out the window. No one thought he'd survive the onslaught. No one thought she'd receive additional support in the form of the one thing she placed her absolute trust and life in. Think what you want. Think all the conventional beliefs and stereotypes you want.

This little dunderhead will defy all of them. This little idiot will go above and beyond to sculpt his world around him.

And this battle's just the cherry on top of a much more extreme sundae.

"Mermaid's Tears to HQ," she sent a message to her squad back on the mainland, "Target has entered 1st Shift. All units to my location immediately, use of deadly force authorized."

"Calling on your knights to do the dirty work for you?" Sokoto sneered, "As expected of a heartless queen."

"Don't underestimate the loyalty of he queen's royal guard," Cecilia said, right before she called on her two drones and her sniper rifle to eliminate the threat in front of her, "especially when the queen herself is the pawn!"


	5. Chapter 5: Get the Nukes Ready

_Part 5: Get the Nukes Ready..._

"HAAAAAAAAAGH!" Sokoto and Cecilia screamed as they charged right into battle, Cecilia with her two loyal angel fish drones by her side, Sokoto with his brand new outfit.

Sokoto threw the first punch, but Cecilia used her rifle to block his attack, and then used its hilt to throw him off guard, and a backside kick to knock him back. Her drones followed suit to unleash the heavy artillery, but he was able do a sidestep breakdance to avoid the laser bullets altogether. He continually pushed forward, swerving left and right to narrowly dodge her shots. Every time he got close to her, however, one of her drones would be lying nearby to catch him off guard. If that didn't work, she would either shoot herself upward or downward to avoid any unnecessary scuffles, or stop shooting and engage him in a close-quarter standoff using her rifle as a katar and biding her time until the drones have a clear-cut shot at him. None of their attacks have been able to land a good hit, however; not only have their ISs been upgraded for fast reaction and reflexes, their innate fighting abilities and piloting skills won't allow them to give in at all.

At one point, he utilized the Ignition Boost to launch a sneak attack from underwater. She barely saw it coming, so one of her drones rushed in to blindside him. Problem is, he went for it anyway. When he submerged, he threw his hand at the nearest target, which turned out to be a drone. He grabbed it and flung it as hard as he could towards the other drone, which shot at the projectile, destroying it. Sokoto used this opportunity to take out the other drone, diving straight into its laser fire, but it was a trap. Cecilia shot and hit him from a safe distance, then called her drone back to her side while she approached Sokoto under cover fire. Under the water, Sokoto revealed his grappling hook and shot it at Cecilia, who noticed it via underwater glow. She quickly dodged the attack, but felt a harsh kick to her ribs. She skid across the water to dissolve the impact while he retracted the hook and IB'd straight for her. She focused all her firepower on him, throwing him off his patterns via sporadically placed shots to draw him in a trap for her drone. Unfortunately, his grappling hook can double as a shield when on standby. He blocked most of the shots, but under heavy fire, he had to trudge through the hazardous water to position himself to counterattack.

They were all over the place during these three very tense minutes. A HUGE amount of energy was spent from them both, wasted because neither of them went slowed down even after taking massive blows. They both knew that this cannot go on forever, lest they risk severe exhaustion.

"Well, I do believe it's past your bed time," Cecilia said as she flew high in the air, "Shall I tuck you in?!" Her rifle emitted a very strong light blue glow; two seconds later, it let loose an endless spray attack.

"Let's dance one more tango before we go to sleep!" Sokoto shouted as he fired his hook straight at the missile barrage. It easily fled past the majority of thee missile barrage...

...until one missile deflected off the shield hook and into its chain, sending it off-course. "Aw, friggidin-fraggity-fru..." Sokoto mumbled before-

"WOOOAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAA!" -the hook pulled him into the line of fire! As he was being dragged, he could feel the bumps of the shots along the road, "Hey, hey, hey, wait a second! I'm not ready for this! WHY WON'T YOU STOP?!" It didn't matter; the grappling hook won't stop until latches onto something. And it's headed for Cecilia! He grabbed his left arm, begging it to disappear.

"What are you-" she couldn't finish hew question in time. The hook itself struck her arms, knocking her sniper rifle out of her reach and staggering her just a tiny bit.

What followed a split-second later...that was caused by the that one missile which deflected off the shield hook and into its chain, sending it off-course.

Earlier, Sokoto tried to stop his hook with his other arm. When the hook struck the rifle, the shockwave of that impact shrilled down all the way to his arm, throwing him off balance and forcing his right arm off. When he collided with her...

It was on her bosom. His right hand squeezed her bosom. His left arm (WHICH WAS DRAGGED BY THE GRAPPLING HOOK, BY THE WAY!) was conveniently placed beside her head.

Which was interlocked with his head. They kissed. Not a sissy kiss. A REAL kiss, tongue and mouth and everything, UGH! If that one moment was captured, it would look like they were sharing a passionate moment together. Except for the bewildered looks on both their faces. Two tenths of a second later, their bodies rubbed off one another, and their suction cake holes released their enthralling grasp, though a bit of saliva escaped during that sequence.

Half a second later, they were on their way. Sokoto continued to struggle with the auto-piloting hook, while shrieking in pure horror at what just happened.

Cecilia, on the other hand, has completely lost control of her IS and her body. She continuously flipped over and about until she hit the surface of the ocean in possibly the biggest cannonball splash in the world. When the waters calmed down, she surfaced on the ocean like a lifeless buoyant doll used for coast guard training. Her IS disappeared and changed to standby mode, but her shocked expression didn't. She didn't know what to think. Who knew he was capable of leaving such a lasting impression on someone? Even more so if it happens by complete accident. If that was the case, then he would become Most Wanted on every single list imaginable.

Cecilia managed to muster enough sanity to contact the rest of her squadron, "Mer...Mermaid's Tears to HQ...Come in, HQ?..."

All she received was laughter. Pure, uncontrollable, hysterical laughter.

From her squadron. 50 meters behind her.

Who got here right after the collision.

When they saw all of it.

Far away from the field of combat, Sokoto continues his fight against his evil hook, "I COMMAND YOU TO STOP, YOU SORRY EXCUSE FOR A LASER! THANKS TO YOUR STUPIDITY, I GOT THE WORST MEAL OF MY LIFE! I'M GONNA TAKE THE SHIELD APART AND LAND YOU A HARSH ONE ON YOUR LIPS AND-" During that long rant, his eyes widened. And the strangest thing came out of his mouth...

"I...I...I caught...the cooties..."

As if in sync with his thoughts and feelings, the Silver Streamline froze in mid-air. All of time seemed to freeze along with them as they took this valuable time to let the images of the collision implant themselves into their brains. They just hovered there, frozen in utter shock at how they allowed this stop happen to them. After a full minute of suspended animation, their remaining shield energy completely emptied itself. Then, they plummeted downward towards an uninhabited island, with the scariest cry of all time:

"THEEEEEE COOOOOOTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEES!"

But it didn't last very long. Ten seconds after initiating the free fall, they slammed their faces onto a beach, kicking off some sand and earth. When the dust settled, they were stuck. Heads buried in the sand, bodies standing upright the wrong way. Completely stuck in limbo. Well, not for too long, because the IS disappeared and took the form of a charm bracelet on the left hand and a blue-on-white collar.

Sokoto, free from the stiffness of his immobile companion, slumped onto the sand, face buried in shame. When he finally came to, he lifted his face, again, in shame. And like a worm, he slithered his way to a boulder, lifted it, slipped under it, and hid himself for the night. In shame. All while whimpering like a confused puppy in utter embarrassment...

Yesterday seemed like a happy stroll through the land. If this is what Today is like, then what will Tomorrow slam in his face next?...

_IS VIRUS_

_Episode 1 END_

_Thank you so much for reading! Leave reviews on how to improve the writing, and favorite if you want to see more of Sokoto in action!_


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